Speakers

Event Details

The development of the new Indonesian capital city on Kalimantan poses both challenges and opportunities. In the past, Kalimantan has been prone to large-scale deforestation and forest degradation. During droughts in El Niño years, large forest areas are burning, with extreme haze affecting human health throughout the region. Reforestation not only can reduce drought sensitivity, but also mitigates climate change, reduces erosion and retains water locally for agriculture and drinking water. Moreover, large-scale forest conversion into oil palm and pulp/paper plantations is making local communities increasingly dependent on food produced elsewhere. A new capital on Kalimantan will face the consequences: poor air quality during droughts, shortages of drinking water, potential flooding and high dependency on food imports. To overcome these problems, reforestation and agricultural diversification are needed, which require the rehabilitation of the landscape. Yet, additional scientific knowledge from different disciplines is needed to promote these opportunities. Therefore, in this session we will address the issue of landscape rehabilitation to facilitate the SDGs Life on Land, Climate Change and Food security.

In this 50 minutes workshop session, we will take stock of the knowledge gaps and research priorities. Prior to the session, an internet survey will be held among the participants and the results will be discussed during the session. The two experts will introduce the session and we will guide a discussion using online voting tools, such as Mentimeter. A brief synthesis of the main knowledge gaps and research priorities will be produced.